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Member Profiles
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Ava Molnar Heinrichsdorff, former chairman of the English Department at The Colorado Springs School for 25 years, is co-author of The Fire Goddess (sounds exciting to me) and has edited many books. In her spare time, she and husband Gernot have enjoyed camping, trekking, rafting and exploring on every continent except Antarctica. Ava has worked professionally in wildlife and livestock photography, trained horses, coached a riding club, led kids' and adults' horse pack trips, and has taken in wild "rescued" animals as temporary pets, such as a great horned owl, newborn skunks, raccoons, a sparrow hawk, a porcupine and snakes. (It certainly would not have been boring to visit Ava's home at one of these times.) Ava's husband is a landscape architect and sculptor, and her two married sons live in Saudi Arabia and Greeley, Colorado. Ava thinks Zontans are a "stimulating group of women who are committed to truly worthwhile endeavors."
Ava visited the U.S. from Hungary several times with her father on his concert tours before moving here at the age of 8 to learn a new language and culture. Although for the most part it has been corrected, Ava has experienced deafness in both ears, so she is very understanding of people who have had disabilities and a great inspiration to them. Her husband wanted her to mention that she is a professional dancer specializing in international and ethnic folk dance and even did belly dance for a few years. "People who knew me as Chairman of an English department often didn't recognize me on stage in a dance costume, while people who knew me as a dancer didn't recognize me in my academic 'costume'."
Among Ava's honors are the 1988 Practitioner of the Year Award (later called the Michael Stratton Award) from the Association of Experiential Education (international), the Leaders of American Secondary Education Award (national) and the Outstanding Teacher Award by the Colorado Language Arts Society (state). Ava leads seminars and international dance festival celebrations for professional, civic and cultural groups all over the U.S. as well as for universities and schools. Ava, we welcome you and are delighted to have you as a member of Zonta.